AA GGUIDE TO PPRAIRIE AND WWETLAND RRESTORATION IN EEASTERN NNEBRASKA A JOINT PUBLICATION OF PRAIRIE PLAINS RESOURCE INSTITUTE AND NEBRASKA GAME AND PARKS COMMISSION A JOINT PUBLICATION OF PRAIRIE PLAINS RESOURCE INSTITUTE AND NEBRASKA GAME AND PARKS COMMISSION 1307 L STREET AURORA NE 68818-2126 Phone: (402) 694-5535 cellular (402) 694-9847 [email protected] prairieplains.org PPRI MISSION MAINTAINING AND RESTORING NEBRASKA ECOSYSTEMS: CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR EDUCATION, RESEARCH, STEWARDSHIP, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT. Prairie Plains Resource Institute (PPRI), is an educational land trust incorporated in 1980 as a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization. The mission of PPRI is being carried out through four major efforts: Ecological Restoration, Prairie Preserves, Education and the Platte River Corridor Initiative. NEBRASKA GAME AND PARKS COMMISSION The mission of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is stewardship of the state’s fish, wildlife, park, and outdoor recreation resources in the best long-term interests of the people and those resources. AA GGUIDE TO PPRAIRIE AND WWETLAND RRESTORATION IN EEASTERN NNEBRASKA by Gerry Steinauer NEBRASKA GAME AND PARKS COMMISSION 1307 L Street Aurora, Nebraska 68818 402-694-2498 [email protected] with assistance from Bill Whitney, Krista Adams and Mike Bullerman PRAIRIE PLAINS RESOURCE INSTITUTE 1307 L Street Aurora, NE 68818 402-694-5535 [email protected] Chris Helzer THE NATURE CONSERVANCY P. O. Box 438 1228 L Street, Suite 1 Aurora, Nebraska 68818 402-694-4191 [email protected] Photos by Gerry Steinauer and PPRI staff unless otherwise acknowledged. Editorial Assistance: Tom White, NEBRASKAland Magazine Layout: Bill Whitney Cover Photo: Krista Adams collecting porcupine grass (Hesperostipa spartea) seeds in a Sandhills prairie near Pierce, Nebraska. © 2003 Prairie Plains Resource Institute and Nebraska Game and Parks Commission Reproduction and transmittal of this publication will be allowed with permission from the authors and Prairie Plains Resource Institute A GUIDE TO PRAIRIE AND WETLAND RESTORATION IN EASTERN NEBRASKA TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 Introduction . 5 Chapter 2 Getting Started . 16 Chapter 3 Seed Collecting . 21 Chapter 4 Seed Processing and Storage . 31 Chapter 5 Seed Mixing and Mixes . 36 Chapter 6 Planting . .52 Chapter 7 Post-Planting Management . 59 Appendix A Reference Material . 69 Appendix B Plant List . 72 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank Pauline Drobney, Tom Koerner and Brad Krohn of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kent Pfeiffer of the Platte River Whooping Crane Habitat Maintenance Trust and Scott Wessel of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission for their review of this document. We also thank Tom White of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission for editorial assistance. There are several excellent publications on prairie and wetland restoration (Appendix A). These provided valuable information for this publication, particularly Going native – a prairie restoration handbook for Minnesota landowners, The tallgrass restoration handbook and A practical guide to prairie reconstruction. We also wish to thank the Rainwater Basin Joint Venture for additional funds to cover binding costs. This publication has been produced with major support from the Nebraska Environmental Trust Fund and the Nebraska Lottery 4 CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION HISTORY OF PRAIRIE RESTORATION In 1980 Bill and his wife, Jan, founded IN EASTERN NEBRASKA Prairie Plains Resource Institute (PPRI), a nonprofit organization based in Aurora and Inspired by a trip to restored prairies in dedicated to prairie restoration, preservation Illinois and Wisconsin in 1978, Bill Whitney of Aurora, Nebraska began harvesting prairie seed and studying the prairies of central Nebraska. In the spring of 1979, he conducted his first prairie restoration, a garden-sized plot on a friend’s farm. The mixed seed, a big coffee can full, included about 35 native grasses and wildflowers collected from local prairies and roadsides. Young seed collector on the Platte River bluffs of Hamilton County, Nebraska in 1980. and environmental education. During the 1980s Whitney conducted several additional small restorations around Aurora and managed three remnant prairies owned by PPRI. At that time, few people in the Midwest were restoring prairies containing large numbers of species, and restoration methods were not well documented. Much of Bill’s knowledge of prairie restoration was gained through practical experience. Beginning in 1991, PPRI was contracted to restore wet meadows on cropland in the central Platte River valley owned by the Platte River Whooping Crane Habitat Maintenance Trust (PRCT) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC). Between 1991 and 1996, Whitney and a host of volunteers hand planted nearly 400 Bill Whitney, in 1978, standing amidst the acres of wet meadow in the valley. Using Morton Arboretum prairie restoration in methods Whitney developed, the Crane Trust Lisle, Illinois. 5 A GUIDE TO PRAIRIE AND WETLAND RESTORATION IN EASTERN NEBRASKA capability to do restorations, and to increase the availability of local-ecotype native seed for restorations, wildlife plantings and horticultural use. Since 2000 the Cooperative has planted more than 1,500 acres of prairie and wetland in the eastern half of Nebraska, mostly on lands owned by conservation agencies or protected through conservation easements. ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION This publication documents the restoration methods originally developed by Bill Whitney and later refined by himself and other PPRI’s custom fabricated seed harvester used ecologists from TNC, PRCT, NGPC and USFWS during the early 1990s. working in eastern Nebraska. Restoration of the following plant community types is covered in and Conservancy continue to do prairie this document: tallgrass prairie, mixed-grass restorations in the Platte River valley. prairie, sand prairie, freshwater wet meadow With a grant from the Nebraska and marsh, Rainwater Basin wet meadow and Environmental Trust in 2000, PPRI established marsh, and saline wet meadow and marsh. the Prairie Restoration Cooperative in The methods we use are generally partnership with the Nebraska Game and Parks affordable and not complicated. To quickly Commission (NGPC), TNC, U.S. Fish and summarize, we handpick and machine harvest Wildlife Service (USFWS), Pheasants Forever seed, do little seed cleaning and broadcast plant (PF) and Natural Resource Conservation Service with a fertilizer spreader. We do not mow (NRCS). Together they are working to expand annual weeds during the initial years after high-diversity prairie restoration to new areas planting and manage established restorations and habitats within the state, to increase their with prescribed fire and grazing. Many Midwestern restorationists use other methods. For example, some plant highly-cleaned seed with a seed drill, pack the soil after planting and mow annual weeds in the first year after planting. We will touch on these methods within this publication. Our methods have proven successful and practical for restorations in eastern Nebraska. We do not wish to imply that our restoration methods work better or are more successful than the methods of others. Other restoration methods might be more appropriate for areas with different climates, soils and vegetation. Innovations in our restoration methodology over A seed sower lineup on a Platte River valley the years have resulted from our experimentation restoration. 6 CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION averaged more than 25 inches. It also extended westward into the drier plains in stream valleys, such as those of the Platte, Republican, Elkhorn, Niobrara and Loup rivers. Tall grasses – big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans) and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) – were the dominant plants of the tallgrass prairie. In the rich soils of wet valleys Tallgrass these grasses often grew 6 feet or taller. Tallgrass prairie soils, which developed over thousands of years, commonly had topsoils over 18 inches thick and rich in organic matter and nutrients. Hundreds of species of Sowers taking a break after a 1993 planting. wildflowers, grasses and sedges added color and diversity to the tallgrass landscape. The large majority of prairie plants are perennials, which and by learning from the restoration efforts of resprout each spring from roots, bulbs or corms. others. Our methods will likely be refined in Annuals and biennials are a minor component coming years as we gain more experience and of the prairie flora. knowledge about prairie and wetland The tallgrass prairie region was the first in restoration and ecology. Nebraska to be settled by Europeans. Immigrants, who first arrived in large numbers THE PLANT COMMUNITIES T P C after the passage of the Homestead Act in 1862, OF EASTERN NEBRASKA found the fertile soils and ample rainfall in the Early French explorers traversing central tallgrass region well suited for growing corn and North America had no term for the vast other crops. By 1900, most of the tallgrass grasslands they encountered, so they called it prairie had been plowed. Today less than two prairie – literally, meadow. Then, prairie covered more than 95 percent of the Nebraska landscape. The prairies were of three basic types: tallgrass, mixed- grass and Sandhills prairie – each of which developed in response to variations in climate and soils. Trees in eastern Nebraska were restricted to well-watered and somewhat fire- protected stream valleys